We all have seen that in the last decade or so social media has become a huge part of most peoples lives. It has transformed the way we communicate and share information (whether we like it or not). Various avenues (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…) have blurred international lines as people have the ease of connecting globally within seconds.
Although there are many critiques who believe that social media does not belong in the classrooms, many faculty members are starting to embrace it and are incorporating Facebook, twitter and blogs in creative ways as part of the curriculum to keep the information and methods of delivery approachable. I recently read the article “Using Social Media in the Classroom: Why There’s A Lot to Like”, and got some great ideas on incorporating social media in higher education. Some of the tips that were new to me are:
- Teachers offering support to students via twitter. That is in addition to office hours, making your self available via twitter can allow flexible ways to provide support to students. Additionally, students can discuss assignments and requirements through twitter as well.
- Teachers can encourage students to great Facebook groups for team assignments and use that as information sharing platform.
- Instagram can be used to capture real-time visual concepts and used to submit them in place of written papers or assignments.
I believe some of these ideas are cool and more easily implemented then others but what I liked about this article was that it encourages teachers to think outside the box.
December 7, 2015 @ 4:26 pm
Ayesha,
I agree that with the great influence of social media on us we somehow want to extend it to every aspect of our daily life. However, using Facebook or Instagram for academic purposes has its own disadvantages. Mixing the private life with professional career has negative consequences.